One of Cambodia’s most senior Buddhist monks urged Cambodians and foreigners alike to quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol during an abstention conference Wednesday afternoon.
At the gathering, participants, including monks and politicians, destroyed thousands of cigarettes in a bonfire and poured numerous bottles of liquor through a chute into a waste bucket.
The purpose of the event, according to a news release, was to urge people to quit such habits, “to reduce the social instabilities and disorder” and “to understand about the guilt of us[ing] drugs.”
“Alcohol has both advantages and disadvantages,” Bou Kry, the supreme patriarch of the Dhammayuth Buddhist sect, told about 100 participants at the conference in Chamkar Mon district’s Baan Thai restaurant. “We need to measure the balance in leading a life in accordance with circumstances, individual tastes and time constraints.”
“So we need to study and be responsible in order to bring safety to Cambodia and the entire world,” he added.
Bou Kry also urged Cambodians not to offer cigarettes to monks and warned his colleagues of the dangers of alcohol.
“Some monks, when they leave the monkhood start drinking alcohol because they have never tasted it before and become quickly addicted,” Bou Kry said. “Don’t let the monks get involved [with smoking].”
“If you want a long life, please quit,” he added.
